It’s on the Chicken Yoghurt blog and echoes some of my earlier views about PMQs.
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The truth behind Ken Livingstone's financial claims
The BBC report on Ken Livingstone really says it all:
London’s mayor knew there were financial problems with some community projects before he publicly denied it, it has been revealed.
London Development Agency (LDA) chairman Manny Lewis said he told Ken Livingstone there were “discrepancies” in some of the projects’ accounts. The mayor subsequently stated publicly that all finances could be accounted for.
If, say, a Conservative MP had been caught out in the same way do you think Labour MPs would just turn their backs and ignore it, or would they be demanding blood, resignation and 1001 other punishments?
How many phone tap requests could you carefully consider each and every day?
Following Nick Clegg raising the issue of Labour’s love of surveillance (mandatory ID cards, innocent people on DNA database etc etc) at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, there’s one particular statistic that is troubling me.
In the last nine months of 2006, the Home Secretary authorised 1,333 warrants to intercept telephone calls or letters. That’s the equivalent of just under five each and every day – with no time off for weekends or holidays and without counting any requests that may have been rejected.
Now – that Home Secretary also has to do the job of running that department (no easy job!) and do all the constituency duties of an MP. So – how much time do you really think goes into those authorisation decisions?
I think this matters for two reasons – first, it raises questions about how well that system might be working (and let’s not forget – if you get a decision wrong, it means the state is unnecessarily spying on the personal conversations of an innocent person) and second – the whole “but the Home Secretary would have to authorise it” defence is increasingly used to justify all sorts of infringements of our civil liberties. It’s not much of a protection is all it really means is a few seconds scanning a memo before saying ‘ok’.
And lo, Gordon Brown spends, spends, spends to bailout Metronet
A few days ago I wrote about the huge financial headache left when tube maintenance company Metronet collapsed. Labour has now had to bail out the mess – a mess caused by their part-privatisation of our tube network in the first place.
It again shines a light on one of the real problems with these sorts of PPP deals: there were sold as shifting the risk to the private sector (who also got the chance to make profits). Instead, we’ve seen firms making profits – but in the end the risk still stays with us taxpayers. As Norman Baker (Lib Dem MP and general scourge of all things wrong) put it: “Just like Northern Rock, the private sector takes the profit when they can, and the public sector bails them out when matters go pear-shaped.”
The one small piece of good news in all this? The bailout bill looks to be coming in at £1.7 billion rather than £1.9 billion.
Questions over £4 million grant to Bernie Grant centre
It looks as if Ken Livingstone’s chickens are coming home to roost. Not only are there police investigations now into six different grants made by Ken & co in City Hall and the London Development Agency (LDA) but we also have a damning report into a series of major grants – including £4 million which was given to the Bernie Grant centre in Tottenham.
These grants total £18.5 million – the sort of sums you would have though would have been carefully looked after! – and the report has found serious flaws in the controls put into place (or rather, not put into place) to ensure the money was spent properly.
Locally, the issue of financing the Bernie Grant Centre has been a long, and rather sorry, saga – there have been lots of issues to question, but whenever someone has spoken up, Labour’s blinkers have come down and they’ve assumed any questioning must some how be a secret plot to axe the centre and that anything and everything they are doing is perfect (as in this case back in 2004).
Well no – when there are doubts over money, it’s our duty to ask searching questions to ensure money is spent properly and effectively.
My colleague Dee Doocey – one of the Liberal Democrats on the GLA – put it very well:
Deloitte’s second – and completely independent – report vindicates the committee’s serious concerns about the processes used by the LDA to manage and monitor cultural projects it funds … It is very clear that the LDA has mismanaged public funds.
Ken’s response? A rather weak quip about how you don’t ask accountants to understand the value of a piece of art (because these grants were all cultural related) – which must misses the point. Just because the money is going on a piece of art or on a pet project of Labour it doesn’t mean you can abandon proper financial controls and scrutiny.
As for the Bernie Grant Centre case – let’s hope there were proper controls at the other end even if Ken Livingstone and the LDA didn’t take proper care of the money when they were sending it out.
How Brown could revolutionaise PMQs, improve Labour's standing, polish the image of politics and make the Tories look like silly – all in one go
Another Wednesday, another PMQs (Prime Minister’s Questions) in Parliament. What to make of today’s Punch and Judy show between Cameron and Brown?
First – I guess, as Nick Robinson points out, that Cameron has forgotten his professed distaste for Punch and Judy, you say one insult, I’ll say two back more loudly style of politics. Perhaps he genuinely meant it when he said it, but if so he’s long since changed his mind.
Second -Gordon Brown really ain’t that sharp or fast when it comes to PMQs. He was always going to have a tough act to follow after Blair who, love or loathe what he said, was a master of the art of question time.
Fraser Nelson rather wickedly desecribes Ed Milliband’s apparent new role in the whole farago:
Ed Miliband seems to have a new job. He now sits next to Brown making theatrical grimaces and facial expressions of mock astonishment when Tories speak. Quite fun to watch. Oxford, LSE, Harvard – and he ends up as the highest-paid mime artist in Britain.
I see Mike Smithson (Political Betting) is speculating whether Brown might even be driven to trying to abolish PMQs. Well – if Brown is minded to, he could revolutionaise PMQs, improve Labour’s standing, polish the image of politics and make the Tories look like silly – all in one go.
The answer? Turn down the volume and turn up the behaviour on the Labour side of the chamber. Imagine what would happen if all the Labour MPs started behaving like sensible adults – none of the screaming and pointing and exagerated facial expressions, none of the passing impressions of the rowdy pub bore who insists everyone in the pub MUST hear what they’ve got to say – and instead – behave like you or I would expect and be expected to behave in any other place of work.
In a blink, he would look statesmanlike, the Tories (if they don’t follow suit) would look almightily daft in a one-sided shouting match, and who knows – PMQs might even end up fullfilling a purpose other than making politics look crap once a week.
But will Gordon do it? On past form, I’m not sure he’s got the bottle to take a decisive act. Here’s hoping though….
Parkland Walk: update
Not got this in convenient electronic format – so here’s a photo of one of the signs explaining what is currently happening:
Will Ken Livingstone put his money where his mouth is?
That’s the question I ask in my latest column – this one for the local Highgate Handbook:
Just imagine Highgate Village on a summer day – with no bus stand! A beautiful pedestrianised area with no noisy, smelly buses with engines idling – and local people able to stroll happily – stopping to chat with friends and neighbours.
In order words – will Ken’s fine words about improving our environment mean action in our community, or will it only be the grand schemes in central London that he pays attention to? Read on in the full piece…
Secret deal over Campsbourne Community Centre
Second piece of bad news courtesy of Haringey Council this week – this one being the secret goings on over the closed community centre site on The Campsbourne.
This Hornsey estate would really benefit from the centre reopening – and it would be a great boost for the main residents in the area who are putting in great efforts to all sorts of local schemes to benefit their community.
But instead, it looks as if Haringey Council has done a deal with developers – and certainly isn’t properly answering questions about the site’s future.
Muswell Hill Library: Labour cuts funds
Bad news on Muswell Hill Library this week – as Labour-run Haringey Council has gone back on its promises to put in more money to give the library a much needed bit of care and attention.
There were worrying signs back in July last year, when at a public meeting the Director of Libraries didn’t really seem to know what was going on with the library plans – and it has now been years and years since Labour first started talking about restoring and rennovating the building (e.g. see here).
Which brings us to this week – and Labour have gone back on plans to put in extra money for Muswell Hill Library. As my colleague Gail (Muswell Hill ward councillor) said:
Muswell Hill Library has seen years of neglect by Haringey Labour and again the only commitment is another patch-up job. I am deeply disappointed that the library will not be extended after much consultation of residents and library users.
Lynne Featherstone 